The Birth Day of Emily Lillian

Emily Lillian
5/30/2011

1:42 am

8lbs 7ozs

20.5 inches long

On Sunday, May 29th around 9am I realized that I was having contractions that felt like labor. I watched the clock as I finished cleaning up breakfast dishes and decided that this was indeed the beginning of labor. I was so excited! All my previous labors had begun in the night or very, very early morning and all of my labors had started with very painful contractions from the onset and progressed very very quickly. My prayer concerning labor as this pregnancy was getting closer to the end had been, "Lord, please let my labor start during the day time so that I don't have to worry about having to wake the children in the middle of the night and please let it be a slower labor so that the midwife can have time to get here and I can have time to prepare the children and the house."
I sent mom a text and let her know that I'd like her to come take the children to spend the afternoon at her house after church; called the midwife and let her know that labor was beginning, but that this labor was not going light speed as my others had been and finally around 10:30am I woke Rob (who had been up all night working) to let him know that he needed to call in to his afternoon off duty job to tell them that he wouldn't be able to come.

All morning I took my time getting the children ready for the day, and doing last minute straightening and organizing of the house. My contractions remained relatively painless and 5 minutes or more apart all morning. Mom and Dad arrived around 1pm to take the kids for the day. Immediately after the kids left the contractions sped up to 3-4 minutes apart, but still they just didn't "hurt" as my contractions usually do early in labor. Our midwife and assistant arrived later that afternoon and we all spent the rest of the afternoon/evening socializing and waiting on labor to become more intense. Rob and I spent a lot of time playing Wii, we took a walk around the neighborhood and I even went up and down stairs in the house trying to speed things up a bit. This was so foreign to me; I'd certainly never needed or wanted to move labor along any faster than it was already going! Rob made us spaghetti for dinner around 7pm and we all sat down to eat and watch America's Funniest Videos. By the time AFV went off at 9pm contractions were around 2 minutes apart and getting painful and intense- I finally needed to stop and concentrate a bit through each one. 12 hours after the onset of regular contractions and labor was really just getting painful! Rob and I were so surprised; all day I kept thinking that at any moment things were going to change and my normal speedy, intense labor pattern would arrive. I headed up to our room to take a shower to see how that made the contractions feel. By the time the water heater was struggling to keep my shower warm I was feeling the need to find a more comfortable place to labor. I found I liked sitting on on exercise ball and hanging on to the foot of the bed.

(10pm and I'm still smiling)

(around midnight I was struggling to get through contractions so Rob held a heating pad on my back)

(around 1 am I was DONE and really struggling-sobbing through contractions)

After letting me have a good cry through several contractions, my midwife and her assistant suggested I try something else, like a bath or shower to help get through the last little bit. So off into the shower I went. Almost as soon as I was there I felt like it was time to push. Rob went out into our bedroom to tell our midwife that it looked like we were going to have a baby in the bathroom. After awhile I turned off the shower and we stopped up the tub so I wouldn't get too cold. Even this stage of labor was so different than all my others; though I struggled with pushing when I had Miriam (because of a too high epidural) ever since then I've never pushed for more than 2 contractions to have a baby. This time it took quite a bit longer. I tried squatting and on my hands and knees in the tub, but just didn't feel like I had a good position for pushing and the baby didn't seem to be moving down much. My midwife suggested standing up between contractions and swinging my hips around to help create more space for the baby to come down. Once I got up I then didn't want to get back down into the tub. The midwives suggested that I lean on Rob for some support and that ended up being the perfect position (for me anyway; I probably killed his poor back hanging from him!) I ended up hanging from his neck as he held me up; it was so nice for me to feel him holding me up and to hear him encouraging me along as I pushed. Before long I was feeling the baby move on down. It still took quite awhile (in comparison to my other labors) to get her to come on out, but it felt so good to feel that I was able to work with the pain. Finally the baby was born into the midwife's arms and I settled back down into the tub. I heard Rob say, "You did it! He's here!" and I immediately replied, "Did you say he?? Did you see?" I looked down quickly and announced, "It's a girl! I think, someone else check?!" At that point, I wasn't sure I trusted my own eyes. We hung out in the tub for a bit but before long we were heading toward the place I'd been dreaming about for the entire pregnancy--starting our recovery and family bonding time in our OWN bed!

(2:15am, in our cozy bed for a first nursing session)
(being weighed and checked out) (one happy and proud Daddy!)

The entire birth experience was so different than I expected. I expected my pattern of labor to be much the same as my other labors. I expected to be holding a baby much more quickly and easily than it happened. I definitely did not expect to have a 16 hour labor--even if the first 12 hours were easier than the first minutes of the other labors. However at the same time so much was exactly as I expected. The experience of having the privilege of giving birth to my baby in my own home surrounded by people I trust and love was amazing and even better in so many ways than I imagined. Who gets to wait for their baby while laughing and playing Wii and enjoying the company of other women who you trust? It was so wonderful to have the fun conversations with my midwives as we passed the time in early labor and later their quiet support. There were no loud machines or bright lights, no strangers telling me what to do or coming in and out of my room with no explanation or introduction. My midwife, after attending births for so long and observing so many different laboring women, knew how to read me. She knew when to be quiet and let Rob comfort me and when to step in with a suggestion or encouragement. Even when I was completely done with labor and feeling that I could not take one more contraction just knowing that she was sitting quietly nearby, obviously unphased at my loss of control I knew that everything was okay and that I would get through it--if she wasn't showing worry or concern what I was doing must be okay and normal. Knowing that I could labor (and deliver!) in any position that I found comfortable was also quite amazing! My midwife was ready to catch the baby while getting soaking wet as I stood in the shower. Instead, her assistant ended up catching her as I stood in the tub by reaching between Rob's legs to catch the baby as Rob supported me. What a sight we must have been!

All of it certainly was worth the reward of another precious daughter!